"Your back."

She turned, letting him have a good look at her back, and when he let go of her wrist, pulled the shirt back in place and reb.u.t.toned it before turning to look at him again. He was staring at the ceiling. "Samuels?"

"Yes, except my face."

"Did they stop him?"

"He stopped when I brought up the breakfast you fed me. Truthfully I don't think anybody would have lifted a hand or said a word to stop anything, but I guess it was too much for him right under my father and Reverend Pratt's noses. He certainly told me in sordid detail what he wanted to do."

He still stared at the ceiling. "Any chance of something to eat more than that soup stuff?"

She stood and carefully examined the ravaged face. "No, soup stuff is all you get until you stop pa.s.sing blood." There was no answer, and she headed for the other bedroom to dress, humming to herself.

Two hours later her new-found serenity was shattered into a thousand pieces.

The first warning was a series of high pitched barks from the fox-faced dog, and then there were sounds of horses entering the yard. One frantic glance showed Samuels, O'Brien, and both of the Meeks brothers, dismounting and tying their horses in front of the main barn.

Anne wrenched the rifle down from the wall, picked up a box of sh.e.l.ls and the gunbelt and pistol from the shelf underneath and ran to the bedroom, shaking Cord awake by the arm with no regard for his feelings.

"Load one for me. Load one, and show me how to shoot it. They're back. Oh, G.o.d, they're back!" She was almost incoherent with fear, and he didn't even ask who was back.

"They are loaded. Watch." He took the rifle from her and worked the lever, then demonstrated squeezing the trigger without actually touching it. "Let them get close and aim at the middle of the body. Keep your back to a wall."

Anne ran for the front door with the rifle. A cautious peek outside showed Samuels emerging from the carriage shed, O'Brien waiting for him in the middle of the yard, and the Meeks brothers coming together from the main barn. They were probably looking for things to steal she thought venomously. Laughing and joking, they were now walking toward the house.

Anne slipped out the front door, put her back firmly to the outside wall and raised the rifle. Spotting her, the men halted halfway across the yard. On each side of Charlie Meeks, his brother, Samuels and O'Brien began to move sideways, putting distance between themselves. Charlie gave her the obscene grin she knew only too well.

"Hey, now, what are you still doing here? How about we take you home? You can ride with me."

Anne didn't waste breath answering him.

"So, your daddy don't want you no more? We'll take you. It'll be a treat for you, honey. Four white men ought to seem like a treat after that Injun."

Anne still said nothing, didn't move.

"Come on now. That thing probably ain't even loaded, and shooting a man isn't something a lady can do. Why don't you just put that down and let's do this friendly like."

Anne had never been as sure of anything as that she could shoot Charlie Meeks, would in fact love to see that disgusting, mocking grin disappear in a spray of blood. She just hoped for the luck to send one of the four to h.e.l.l before the others got to her. She could not possibly get more than one when she had never even fired a gun before, but that wouldn't stop her trying.

Slight thumping noises were coming from the house, but she didn't turn to look. If more men were coming up behind her, her cause was lost anyway, no use taking her eyes off Charlie and his friends.

All four men began walking toward her again, Charlie still leering at her. "Aw, honey, you can't shoot me."

Anne heard another louder thump, and then a deep rasping, "I can," as Cord lurched into the doorway, naked except for the white strapping on his ribs, leaning against the frame for support, and bringing the pistol to bear.

His first shot took Charlie Meeks in the shoulder, the second brought a yelp of pain from Lem Samuels. He doubled over, but Anne wasn't sure where he had been hit.

Neither man went off his feet, and all four were now running for their horses. Cord began to slump down the door frame, and she hurried to ease his fall.

Just before he became dead weight, she heard him mutter, "Keep shooting." So she did. The recoil frightened her but didn't stop her. She emptied the rifle, then the pistol at the retreating figures, hoping they could not tell it was only her wild firing. The horses kept running.

When she dropped the empty pistol, Cord was on the floor, unconscious, shivering and covered with gooseflesh from the cold fall air, bleeding from one nostril again. She dragged him out of the doorway and ran to the bedroom, returning with a pillow and blankets and wrapping him where he lay. Sinking down beside him, unable to face dragging him back into the bedroom, she sat with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them and began to rock back and forth, her mind refusing to function.

CHAPTER 5.

SHERIFF NOAH REYNOLDS DROVE A borrowed buggy through the crisp, clear air of a day so beautiful he would usually have been lost in admiration. Today, though, he hunched in thought, paying only the automatic attention to his surroundings that years of law enforcement in rough country had ingrained.

Noah was bound for the Bennett Ranch, and he was still not sure why. Edward Wells had come to him yesterday morning, demanding that his daughter Anne be "rescued"

from Cord Bennett's, but almost nothing about his story made sense. Noah had to testify in court in the afternoon and refused Wells' demands for immediate action, but promised to look into the matter first thing today. He had, however, been forced to waste hours this morning calming an irate citizen who was losing a chicken a week and sure that her neighbors were helping themselves to a weekly roast chicken dinner.

Wells claimed his daughter had "stumbled" onto the Bennett Ranch, been beaten and raped by Cord, and that Wells and a rescue party had beaten Cord in retaliation and "accidentally" killed him. If they hanged the half-breed under those circ.u.mstances, trying to prosecute would be a waste of time. It made no sense that that was what Edward was lying about, and there was no doubt in Noah's mind that Edward was lying.

Wells refused to listen to Noah's patient explanation that rescuing crime victims was not part of a sheriff's job, became evasive and abusive when pressed about how Anne had gotten to the Bennett Ranch in the first place, and refused to answer at all when asked why he hadn't brought his daughter home immediately.

Everything about the story smelled bad, and Noah felt uneasy. Anne Wells had not been seen around town for more than a month now, and her family answered inquiries with a story of slow recovery from a fever. Noah now remembered a few gossips happily nodding their heads and implying that actually she was being held prisoner by her family in the continuing effort to get her to marry George Detrick, but Noah disregarded such stories as nonsense. Such Medieval happenings could not be occurring in his town in this year of 1885.

Noah was further troubled because of the Bennett family's involvement. The Bennetts had been long-time residents of Colorado when Noah arrived, but the sheriff had learned their history in bits and pieces over the years.

James Bennett had come west with his three young children, Ephraim, Frank, and Hannah, in the '40s. At first he made a living any way he could - hunting, trapping, and trading. By the time Colorado became a territory in 1861, he had the boundaries of what would become the Bennett Ranch staked out, and he set about acquiring t.i.tle to the land in earnest.

Noah knew some in Mason rationalized Jamie's second marriage as clever politics.

The land was still ruled by the Plains Tribes, and the Bennetts had indeed prospered without fear of Indian raids. Yet both Ephraim and Frank Bennett maintained that their father's second marriage was a love match, and unlike most white men, Jamie married the woman he called Song before a Christian preacher.

Noah also knew it was Song Bennett's death that had changed Jamie from a vital adventurer to an absent-minded man who left both running his ranch and raising Song's son and daughter, Cord and Marie, to his older children.

Noah shook his head. Cord.... How on earth could Edward Wells and a few townsmen have beaten Cord Bennett? It would be Noah's expectation that the half-breed could tear Edward and several like him to pieces. It was even harder to believe that Cord would commit such a crime.

Cord had spent ten days in Mason's jail when he was only fifteen. At that time, Noah tried to help the boy come to terms with what his mixed blood would mean in a white man's world, something Noah faulted the Bennetts for protecting him from too well for too long. Noah had ended up feeling uneasy about the quiet boy, a disquiet that turned to fear over the years. He often wondered if his meddling back then did more harm than good. Considering why Cord was jailed in the first place, it was even harder to believe he would hurt a woman, but there was no doubt that in the years since Cord returned to Mason from his never explained wanderings, he got leaner and meaner with each pa.s.sing season.

The sheriff sighed, thinking that perhaps it was just as well the man was dead. He had often feared worse trouble than this.

Suddenly Noah sat up straight, carefully scanning the road and range ahead. Some movement and trace of dust alerted his always watchful sixth sense. A strong conviction came on him that riders coming this way were avoiding pa.s.sing him on the road, something he would have investigated if he weren't due back in court again this afternoon. The judge didn't come through Mason often enough to wait half a day on an absent sheriff. Noah cursed the restrictions of the buggy instead of a saddle horse, but he knew Anne Wells had never been on a horse, and the purpose of his trip was to bring her home. If he weren't so short of time, he might stop at the main Bennett Ranch and talk to Frank, but as things were he'd best head straight to Cord's.

As Noah drove into the ranch yard, he looked around in surprise. It had been many years since he had been on this part of the Bennett Ranch, and talk in town about how poorly Cord lived had made him forget how st.u.r.dy and attractive these old buildings really were. They all had fresh paint, the yard and corrals were in good repair, and the stock visible was in good shape. One man did not keep a place looking like this by lazing around.

A dog hiding behind the barn barked shrilly at him. Noah slowed, drew his gun, and began to approach the house with care as he noticed the front door standing open.

Moving quietly across the porch, he glanced in the door and stopped in his tracks at the sight that greeted him. The man wrapped in blankets on the floor was only recognizable by the raven black hair. A woman who had to be Anne Wells huddled on the floor beside the man's body, arms cradling her knees, rocking back and forth. Close now, Noah could hear a soft keening rising and falling in a mindless cadence.

Holstering his gun, he managed to utter an incredulous, questioning, "Anne?"

His single word caused a flurry of motion. Anne scrambled after the rifle on the floor, reached it and turned in a crouch. Her bruised face was contorted in a terrible grimace, and she was aiming straight at his middle from a distance of only a few feet. Noah took two steps back, holding his hands out at his sides, waist high and palms up, and began using his most soothing tone.

"Now, Anne, you know I'm not going to hurt you. It's only me, Noah Reynolds, and I've come to take you home."

Noah had been sheriff of Mason a long time. He expected her to recognize him, hoped his soft tone would calm her, but didn't expect her reaction. She dropped the rifle and threw herself in his arms whimpering, "Help me. Please help."

He held her in a fatherly hug and patted her back, hoping a bit of comfort might restore her senses. When her sobbing let up, he tried to guide her through the door, saying, "Come on, now, I've got a buggy right outside and we'll have you home in no time," but she pulled loose and got down on her knees beside Cord.

"No. You don't understand. I'm never going home. I need help getting him back to the bedroom. If you'll help me, we could even get him into the bed. He's all broken up inside and he's made it worse. Please help me get the bed back together and then carry him for me. If you'll keep his body straight, I can support his head and shoulders."

Noah picked up both the rifle and the nearby pistol, checked and saw they were empty, and looked back at Anne. "We'll stop at Frank's and send him back here to see what can be done. If he's still alive, he'll hang for doing this to you anyway."

In spite of the blackened eyes and swollen face, Noah could see fury sweep over her.

"You'll hang him over my dead body. He's the only one who didn't hurt me."

Remembering his musings on the trip out here, Noah knew that his suspicions had all been right. Something was very wrong, and the only way he was going to find out was to get Anne calmed down and telling her story. "All right, show me what you need."

Noah lifted the mattress back on the bed, and waited while Anne remade the bed, then followed her back to where Cord lay. She slid her arms under Cord's shoulders, and looked up at Noah. "Please?"

With a sigh, Noah started to lift the long body.

"Try not to let him sag. Don't bend him." There was so much concern in her voice, Noah gentled his touch and tried to follow her instructions, and together they carried the unconscious man to the bedroom. Noah started when she pulled the blanket off Cord, embarra.s.sed until he took in the injuries and all other thoughts fled.

"Good Lord, is he really alive like that?"

"He was, if he didn't kill himself this morning."

She made Noah hold Cord while she washed his reopened wounds then carefully straightened his senseless body, fussing over tilting his head just so over a towel and replacing clean cloths under his hips and upper thighs.

At this Noah's embarra.s.sment returned. "See here, Anne, this isn't right. You can't be doing this sort of thing."

She didn't even glance up. "This is the fourth day I've been doing this sort of thing. I stopped worrying about my sensibilities in the first five minutes."

Noah watched her tuck the sheet and blankets around the battered body with tender care, and then followed her to the kitchen, where she turned and said, "I'm sorry for the hysterics. It's been a terrible few days, and just when I thought everything was all right, it went all wrong again, and it was too much for a while. Sit down. I'll make us some coffee, and you can tell me why you're here."

The sheriff watched her bustling around the kitchen, obviously familiar with everything, and told her how he had come to be there.

With the pot heating on the stove, Anne sat down across from him and said, "Noah, my father lied to you. He's probably realized there were guns in the house and if he came after me himself I might shoot him. The only way I'll ever go home is if you drag me back in handcuffs, and if you do that, I'll run away again the first chance I get. Now, am I under arrest?"

"Of course not, but you can't stay here with that man. You know that."

"I'm staying here until someone else comes to take care of him. I'd appreciate it if you'd tell the doctor to come as soon as he can. I've never nursed anybody before, and for all I know, I'm making everything worse. And his brothers, would you tell his brothers?"

"I'll tell Frank and Ephraim, and I'll send the doctor out, but you've got to come with me."

"No."

Their eyes met, and Noah was the first to look away. He sighed again. "I think you'd better tell me the whole story."

She did. She told him every bit of it, starting with why she was there.

CHAPTER 6.

NOAH DID NOT HAVE TIME to stop at Frank Bennett's on the way back to town, or to see Ephraim Bennett when he got back, but he did, as promised, stop at Dr. Craig's. The doctor was out, but Mrs. Craig said she would have her husband go look at Cord first thing in the morning, and also agreed to get word to Ephraim. Satisfied, Noah headed for the courtroom. The defendant in this trial had more money than sense and had hired a Denver lawyer to represent him, so Noah didn't count on seeing Ephraim at the courthouse.

As it happened, Mrs. Craig kept her promise to tell Ephraim by having the doctor stop at the Bennett house on the way out to the ranch in the morning. Ephraim had already left to meet a client, so the doctor gave the message to Ephraim's wife, Martha. But by the time Martha caught up with her husband, he had been cornered by Mrs. Carson, who was good friends with Mrs. Peabody, who had been talking to Reverend Pratt's wife, and Ephraim was heading home almost at a dead run anyway. The story Mrs. Carson had so enjoyed telling Ephraim was how his half-brother had ravished poor Anne Wells and been killed for it.

Ephraim was the oldest of the Bennett brothers and the biggest. He stood several inches over six feet, and had light blond hair and pale blue eyes. Ephraim was usually a slow, gentle, bear-like man, but there was nothing slow or gentle looking about him when Martha found him. The news that Cord was alive did not improve his temper.

"Good," he grated, "Frank and I can kill the son of a b.i.t.c.h ourselves."

ANNE KNEW MASON WAS FORTUNATE to have a doctor such as Daniel Craig. An Easterner born and bred, Craig had put in ten hard years working in the slums of New York City before realizing he could not endure much more struggling against such a tide of human misery. Craig had told Anne that in Mason he found a practice where he felt he was doing some good. His slight build, boyish face, and curly light brown hair helped convince the female half of Mason he was as reliable as old Doc Andrews in no time at all. Anne suspected it didn't hurt that his wife spared no effort to endear herself to the town.

She had hoped Craig's visit would rea.s.sure her. It did not. Cord was having periods of lucidity again, and the bleeding had stopped in the night. The doctor listened carefully to what had happened and what Anne had done. He a.s.sured her she had done nothing harmful and had indeed helped. Then he told her as gently as possible that sometimes the human body could cling very tenaciously to life, and that at such times people simply took a long time to die.

"There's nothing you can do? He's just going to die?"

Anne had made sure Dr. Craig realized Cord was not the villain of this tragedy. There was sympathy in the doctor's att.i.tude, but he answered frankly. "I'm not saying I know he's going to die. Every doctor has seen his share of miracles. He wouldn't be alive right now if he weren't stronger than most of us, but you've asked me my opinion, and I don't think his chances are very good."

She had reached the same conclusion herself days ago, but since then hope had taken hold, and now she felt despair. "Will you stop by and see him again?"

"I thought Ephraim and Frank would be here to take him off your hands soon. I stopped at Eph's this morning myself to make sure the family knew."

The thought of help made her try to smile, but that only made her face hurt. "Well, would you plan on coming, and if he's moved or...." She could not say the word, "Someone will get word to you."

"Of course, if I'm out this way for any reason, I'll stop by, and if not, I'll make a point of coming back out in a couple of days. How's that?"

It would have to do. Anne curled up in the rocker again to watch, fighting the fog of misery threatening to envelop her. If only he hadn't made that incredible struggle to the doorway. If he hadn't, they would both be dead, and she knew it.

The barking of the dog she had begun to think of as Foxface woke her sometime later.

Anne looked out the front window, hoping to see Frank and Ephraim Bennett, and sure enough there were the two big blond men tying their horses to the porch railing.

Opening the front door, she began to greet them, "I'm so glad to see you, we...," but both men brushed by her as if she didn't exist, heading for the bedroom with long, angry strides. Indignant, Anne chased after them.

Frank was considered the handsome Bennett. Where Ephraim's hair was a pale blond, Frank's was bright gold. Frank was built long and lean, like Cord, and was about the same height, but his open countenance, even features, and laughing deep blue eyes drew people to him instantly. Anne had heard that before he married and settled down, Frank had been quite a ladies' man. She had also heard about his quick temper and was glad he was so angry on Cord's behalf, but she didn't like being ignored.

Cord had been asleep when the doctor arrived and waked only to pa.s.s out during the examination. The sound of his brothers' angry approach brought him awake again. As they charged into the bedroom, Anne tried once more to get their attention, "He really isn't well enough to talk to you much yet...."